by Strictly English TOEFL Tutors on July 6, 2012

Strictly English has introduced a new Study Hall program that combines the focus of private lessons with the affordability of group tutoring. Our tutor works 1-on-1 with you, and responds to another student while you are typing your answers. Each Study Hall is one hour long, and we have a number of days and times available. See the Study Hall page for more information, or click here to sign up.

Below is an excerpt of an interview with three recent students in Strictly English’s Study Hall:

Strictly English: What were you expecting for the Study Hall?
VN: I thought one of the students would write some, like we did, and everybody can see and make corrections. The teacher would see each correction, and evaluate if it is right or not. So the teaching method would be like correcting somebody’s mistakes and learning the grammar from these mistakes. However, this was better because the previous is more passive learning. It is a more “active” process.

Strictly English: What did you like most about the Study Hall?
MC: I liked that I can see how much time I spent to write my sentence, and that there was time to evaluate my work before sending to the tutor.

DH: Also, the time for thinking is approximately the same as for the TOEFL test, which is very good for training. This was very effective and really good way to practice.

VN: All my mistakes and their corrections are fixed in the Skype notes, and I could review them.

Strictly English: In which areas of English did you receive help during the Study Hall?
DH: I learned couple of essential points about TOEFL writing, such as, how to use punctuation, how to use transitions, and how to organize sentences.

MC: I learned how to create short sentences. It also helped me with my repetition of word problem.

Strictly English: Did you learn any tips for taking the TOEFL exam?
MC: I have learned about “slowing down,” and not being nervous when I write.

VN: The brainstorm and idea of the question were very good because they can cover the speaking and writing parts on the real TOEFL.

Strictly English: What would you say to someone who is thinking about signing up for the Study Hall?
DH: I liked it. I felt comfortable when my mistakes were corrected. I am very satisfied with my Study Hall experience and find it very helpful for any ESL or TOEFL student.

VN: It supported my skills, and I really like they taught me how to figure out my mistakes by myself. I believe that it is very good and progressive method of studying English.

MC: In my opinion, it is very helpful and at the same time you don’t feel any tension, really enjoying your lesson. If I keep taking this Strictly English Study Hall, I think I can be a better writer!

by Strictly English TOEFL Tutors on June 29, 2012

In casual conversation, people often reply in the affirmative with the word “Okay”. This can be a useful word to indicate that you agree with what is being said, but be careful. A big part of the meaning comes from the way “okay” is said, rather than from the word itself.

For example, when a wife says, “I’m going to work now,” her husband might say “ooo-kayyyy” in a sing-song voice. In this context, his response means something like, “I’ve heard that you’re saying good bye, and I’m wishing you a good day.”

Change the way “okay” is said, however, and the word is far less affirming.

Consider this situation: A father says to his young son, “Clean up your room,” and the child says, “okay,” but 30 minutes later, the room is still a mess! The father thinks the “okay” means, “I’ll do that right now,” but what did the child mean? Here are a few possibilities:

1. “I heard you, but I don’t want to do it right now. I’ll do it later”
2. “I heard you say something, but I wasn’t really listening. I’m a kid and you’re always telling me to do something, so I just tune you out most of the time.”
3. “I heard you, but I have no intention of doing what you’ve asked. I only said ‘okay’ so that you’d leave me alone while I play with my computer.”

As we can see from this example of the parent and child, it’s not always clear what “okay” means. When the word is said with little or no emotion, it can be unintentionally insulting, as in #3 above and sometimes #2.

At best, an emotionless “okay” means, “I heard you and am waiting for more information.” This is not rude (like #3), but it might suggest that you do not comprehend what was said to you. It’s like saying “go on” or “continue,” to keep the conversation going. These expressions do not always indicate that you understand what is being discussed.

So, be sure you’re saying “okay” with excitement and interest in your voice when you communicate. Better yet, say a phrase like “I get it” or “that makes sense” or “I understand.” These phrases are harder to say emotionlessly, so you’ll convey what you actually feel.

by Strictly English TOEFL Tutors on June 17, 2012

We at Strictly English have been repeatedly surprised that very bright high school students struggle with taking the TOEFL exam.

Although these students come from a wide range of high schools, we have noticed a common pattern in their educational experiences: high school students are typically rewarded for contributing to class, regardless of the accuracy or the critical acumen of what they say. There are many pedagogical reasons for this, including countering student apathy, keeping bright students engaged in classroom discussion, and acknowledging when students overcome their reluctance to speak up.

Of course, not every high school classroom follows this pattern, and many do emphasize the quality of students’ participation instead of its quantity. However, this too-frequent high school-based view of participation translates into TOEFL classes where students begin to say or write the first response that comes to them, instead of thinking carefully about how relevant or accurate their statements are.

BUT, unlike high school, college classes, and therefore TOEFL, will not reward you just for speaking. College classes and the TOEFL exam look for relevant and meaningful contributions that respond intelligently to the topic / discussion.

An egregious example of what happens when high school students are encouraged to think that speaking up in class is the same as being smart occurs when our students come close to word association in their answers. If the prompt is about chemistry, for example, talking about the link between two people in a romantic relationship is quite different from a discussion of an experiment in a lab. This is obvious, but if students just riff on the word “chemistry,” they could go in an entirely different direction than the one intended in the prompt.

But the TOEFL exam will not reward you for just being able to make any random connection between two ideas. It will only reward you if you can articulate – via paraphrasing – the author’s / lecture’s connection between two ideas. In other words: the skills that you have been rewarded for throughout 4 years in high school – stating your opinion about the subject under discussion – will not serve you well in college or on the TOEFL. Instead, you have to think very carefully about the information you’ve been given, and you have to stay true to its message. The harshest way to say this is: the TOEFL exam doesn’t care what you think about the test’s content; it only cares about how well you can understand its content and re-present it.

Participation should be rewarded early in a student’s intellectual growth, but to excel on the TOEFL and in college, that participation must be both accurate and relevant.

by Strictly English TOEFL Tutors on June 2, 2012

Although last week we encouraged you to use coordinating conjunctions as part of compound sentences at the intermediate level of English, you also have to guard against using them so often that you produce what are called “run-on” sentences.

As defined by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab, run-on sentences, also called fused sentences, are compound sentences that are not punctuated correctly. Perhaps they have a comma where a semicolon is needed, or perhaps there is no punctuation at all. Some examples include:

My cat is sick, I took him to the vet. (Comma instead of semi-colon)

My friend is the manager of a grocery store she is always looking for new ways to attract customers. (No punctuation)

In addition, this site is helpful for reviewing coordinating conjunctions and how to punctuate compound sentences.

Besides the problem of run-ons, overusing coordinating conjunctions will cause you to miss logical connections between argumentative elements of your sentence. This is because coordinating conjunctions have a very limited range of logic words. For example, while “but” suggests logical opposition, and “so” indicates logical outcomes, the word “and” does not introduce a logical *reason,* *cause,* or *result* between the first and second clauses. If you only use coordinating conjunctions, you will be limited when explaining a logical situation. This, in turn, will produce redundant writing.

So you want to have a mix of complex sentences and simple sentences. This will not only avoid run-ons, but it will also provide variety.

Instead of writing: I walked in the rain, so I got sick. You can write: I walked in the rain. This is why I got sick.

Both of these structures are fine and will score high if you write them with perfect intermediate grammar, but since most people speak in run-ons, it’s more natural to write with coordinating conjunctions. If you do that yourself, then it might be easier to write that way and then go back and edit your writing, breaking up the run-ons into smaller sentences and replacing the coordinating conjunctions with short phrases that indicate logical connections such as, “For this reason” or “This is how.”

by Strictly English TOEFL Tutors on May 25, 2012

Anyone studying for the TOEFL exam understands that many aspects of English play a significant role in your TOEFL Writing score: grammar, spelling, vocabulary, idiom use, sentence structure, argument, logic, transitions, relevant details, clear thesis, paragraph breaks, punctuation, etc. But if we wanted to look at just the role that grammar plays in your score, you might be surprised by the following information.

Initially, you might think that TOEFL aligns its scores (0-30) according to the level of English. For example:

But this might not be true. For example, you don’t need to be fluent if you want a 27 on the Writing section. In fact, all you need is intermediate grammatical structures with very few errors.

Good to know, right?

But even with this information, there is still a lot to think about regarding grammar: verb tense, article use, sentence structure, word order, etc. We can’t cover all of these in this one blog entry, so let’s just look at one thing on this list: sentence structure.

Basically, the more common sentence structure for intermediate grammar is the “compound” sentence. Here is a brief explanation of sentence structure:

One way to categorize sentences in English is as follows:

Simple

Compound

Complex

SIMPLE SENTENCES have one clause. For example: I went to the store.

COMPOUND SENTENCES have two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (e.g., “and”, ‘but”, “or”). For example: Fred ate dinner, and Zhen watched TV.

PLEASE NOTE: the word “and” does not always indicate a compound sentence. For example, look at this sentence: Yuki and Alejandro both ate cake and cookies. It has the word AND in it twice, but these ANDs are not connecting two clauses; the first AND is only connecting two subjects (Yuki and Alejandro), and the second AND is only connecting two direct objects (cake and cookies). Therefore, this sentence is actually a SIMPLE sentence with a “compound subject” and a “compound direct object”.

COMPLEX SENTENCES have two or more clauses, one of which is dependent. For example: If the storm comes, we’ll close the windows. Here, “If the storm comes” is the dependent clause. If you need to learn more about dependent clauses, then please click here.

So, if you can write compound sentences with few or no spelling or punctuation errors, then you can get a 27 on the test!

Remember, though, just because the writing is intermediate, doesn’t mean that intermediate students will have an easy time scoring a 27. This is because intermediate students are still learning compound structures and make a lot of mistakes with them. So, the best candidate to try this technique is an advanced student who can write masterful compound sentences that are free from error and use engaging and precise vocabulary.

by Strictly English TOEFL Tutors on May 18, 2012

Understandably, ETS wants to make sure that no information about the TOEFL exam leaves the test center. This ensures that the test’s answers cannot be given to a future test taker.

One way that ETS promotes security is to limit the amount of paper you receive. If everyone in the test center is given the same quantity of paper, then the monitor (first definition) will know to collect that number of pages from you. If you give the monitor only three sheets of paper when she knows everyone got four sheets, she will ask you for that fourth sheet. This means you cannot hide that fourth paper in your pocket with all the answers on it.

But this security measure poses a risk to your TOEFL score! You can easily imagine how this might happen: you need more paper, but the monitor is busy with someone else, or she is looking somewhere else and doesn’t see that your hand is up. You’re wasting valuable waiting to catch her attention – time that you can’t afford.

So here’s what we suggest to help you manage your paper:

1. You will be given three or four pieces of paper at the beginning of the test. Even if you think you don’t need the paper, take it anyway. It’s better to be prepared!

2. Stack the sheets together, and lay them in front of you so that the pile is longer from left to right (the same as “landscape layout” for a printer). Fold all the sheets in half. This makes every sheet into a little book with four pages. Now you have four “pages” per sheet of paper instead of only two (front and back of an unfolded sheet).

3. Use only one of these “pages” for each Reading passage and each Listening passage. If you have large handwriting or tend to scrawl your notes, you will need to practice writing a bit smaller and/or more neatly to use your paper more effectively.

4. On the break, ASK FOR MORE PAPER. Do this even if you’ve got some sheets left over! It’s better to start with four new sheets instead of having only one or two sheets when you start the Speaking section. You will have to surrender any pieces of paper that you’ve used.

5. Fold your sheets again and use one “page” for each of the Speaking tasks.

When you manage your paper this way, you will not run out of space for notes during the second half of the test. You really do not want to have to raise your hand, and wait for the attendant to see you.

Not only will you never run out of paper if you follow these steps, but you’ll also keep your notes more clearly organized. Besides having to wait for more paper while the timer keeps running, you don’t want to get confused because you crammed all of your notes from multiple lectures or passages onto the same page!

by Strictly English TOEFL Tutors on May 4, 2012

In an early scene (at the 4:40 mark) of the 1993 movie Philadelphia, Tom Hanks’ character has been illegally fired from his job and is looking for a lawyer to represent him in court. He comes to Denzel Washington’s office, and begins to tell his version of what happened. Soon, Washington’s character says, “Explain this to me like I’m a two year old.” The character’s point is that clear communication is essential for understanding complex issues, and sometimes, sophisticated language impedes clarity.

Last week’s post emphasized the importance of clear and precise intermediate English on the TOEFL exam. This week, we’re following up with a comparison of flawed advanced English and excellent intermediate English to illustrate what you’re aiming for on the TOEFL. Remember, the TOEFL is a test of communication, so clear ideas and clear expression need to be your primary focus on the exam.

Last fall , we presented a list of how TOEFL scores correspond to everyday life. Professional public speakers, such as Oprah Winfrey, correspond to a TOEFL score of 30. With that in mind, we’ve taken a sample from Oprah’s commencement speech at Howard University in 2007 and altered it somewhat, introducing the sort of errors that might easily happen on the TOEFL exam.

Here’s the example of flawed advanced English:

“The human dearth of your integrity is the most we had to offer and I would beseach you to remember what Harriet Tubman said her efforts to spirit salves of the plantation. Hariet Tubman once said that she would have liberated thousands more if only she would have convinced them they are salves. So do not be a salve to any form of selling out, maintenance you integrity it have always been, I believe, an only solution to all problems in the word and it remains the only solution.”

Although this example has polished vocabulary as well as rhetorical flair, the numerous misspellings and problems with prepositions, articles, subject/verb agreement, and sentence structure would lower the score for this passage considerably.

Here’s the version of Oprah’s passage in flawless intermediate English. It makes the same points, but in a more direct, clear manner:

“The greatest sacrifice we can make is to give up our integrity. Remember what Harriet Tubman said about her work to get slaves to freedom. She once said that she could have helped thousands more escape slavery if she could have made them realize that they are slaves. Do not sell out and become a modern slave. Keep your integrity. I believe this always has been, and always will be, the solution to the world’s problems.”

The sentences here are a bit shorter, the vocabulary is simpler, and the message is easy to understand.

Remember clarity and directness are not signs of weak English skills. They are the hallmarks of excellent intermediate English.

by Strictly English TOEFL Tutors on April 27, 2012

English has two idioms about the importance of details. One is “The devil is in the details.” The other is “God is in the details.” Someone hearing these two expressions might ask: How can both God and the devil be in the details? And more relevant to our purposes as TOEFL tutors, we might ask, what do these expressions have to do with TOEFL study?

Let’s tackle the first question first. “God is in the details,” the older expression, means that anything you do, you should do well. There is no satisfaction in doing a task in a sloppy or inattentive way, or in leaving the task unfinished. The opposite expression, “The devil is in the details” points to the difficulty in doing something well, especially if that difficulty is not apparent in the beginning. For example, close examination of the details might reveal additional complexity in the task, or the need for more in-depth knowledge.

So turning to the second question, “What does this have to do with TOEFL?,” we have to remember that TOEFL rewards attention to detail, and these details are fiendishly frustrating to most TOEFL test takers. For example, fact questions in the Reading might ask you to differentiate between two similarly written words, like “stalagmite” and “stalactite.” In the Listening section, you may need to recall a specific number like 1,000 B.C. and must be sure you don’t accidentally choose 10,000 B.C. or 1,000 A.D. Details in the Speaking usually means having extremely accurate pronunciation, while your Writing has to have detailed examples to prove your argument.

If you can master these devils, then you are rewarded with the “godly” satisfaction of razor sharp accuracy and precision in both choosing answer choices and in communicating your ideas in flawless intermediate English.

So what’s the takeaway (definition 2) of this entry? To receive a “godly” TOEFL score that might put you in seventh heaven , you have demonstrate a strong ability to work with details, which can be a real devil of a time for most people to accomplish.

One way is to regularly compare articles in Simple English Wikipedia with those on the same topic on the main Wikipedia site. Read the Simple English version first, and when you completely understand it, switch to the main Wikipedia version. Notice what’s different about the main Wikipedia version: more advanced vocabulary and sentence structure, as well as additional details about the topic. If you have high reading comprehension, you should be able to read the main Wikipedia site with minimal difficulty. You could also switch the comparison by reading the main Wikipedia entry first, and then the Simple English version. If your understanding of the main Wikipedia article does not match what the Simple English version says, you need to work on your comprehension skills.

Let’s look at an example about the American Revolution.

The Simple English version says, “The American Revolutionary War was a war fought between Great Britain and the original 13 British colonies in America. . . . The colonies became independent, which meant that the British Empire was no longer in charge of them.” The sentence structure is simple, and a key vocabulary term, “independent,” is defined.

The corresponding article on the main Wikipedia site says, “The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which the thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America. … Ultimately, the states collectively determined that the British monarchy, by acts of tyranny, could no longer legitimately claim their allegiance. They then severed ties with the British Empire in July 1776, when the Congress issues the United States Declaration of Independence, rejecting the monarchy on behalf of the new sovereign nation separate and external to the British Empire.” Here, the sentence structure is more complex, the vocabulary is more sophisticated and is not defined, and there is substantially more detail.

Measure your comprehension by looking for opportunities to compare articles on the same topic written for different audiences. The more easily you can switch from an article written for an introductory-level audience to one written for an intermediate-level (or higher!) audience, the better your comprehension.

by Strictly English TOEFL Tutors on April 15, 2012

One of our Strictly English tutors recently received this message in a fortune cookie, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Not only is this a tasty ending for dinner, but it’s also a great mindset when studying for the TOEFL!

Many students think that determination and hard work will guarantee success on the TOEFL exam. To a certain extent, they’re right, of course. You need to prepare thoroughly for the exam, understand the skills necessary for each section, and practice so that you can improve any problem areas in advance. This takes time and effort.

But it’s possible to take determination and hard work too far. Memorizing long lists of vocabulary words, for example, or studying for 4 hours straight every day for months, will not exponentially increase your success. The chances are low that you’ll happen to study the precise words on the exam, and after about 2 hours of concentrated work, your brain can’t absorb more information. Marathon study sessions end up being unproductive because the time spent isn’t being used effectively. It’s easy to become discouraged when you think of studying as a chore to slog through.

So how does enthusiasm affect your TOEFL studying?

In addition to making study sessions more appealing, enthusiasm leads to curiosity and flexibility. These skills let you explore topics and make connections with what you already know. If you’re interested in what you’re doing, you’ll remember more, and will be able to apply that knowledge more effectively. You might not know much about large-scale agriculture, for example, but if you have a home garden, you can draw on that information to find areas of overlap with the topic.

On the other hand, if you approach studying for the TOEFL as if all you need to do is master a fixed set of content, you might have greater trouble dealing with unexpected material. Since there’s no way to know what will be on the exam, you cannot effectively take a content-based approach in your studying.

Be enthusiastic about your TOEFL preparation, and you’ll be looking forward to your next study session. From there, the sky’s the limit!